IF the site if fairly dry and drains WELL, then American Smoke Tree - Cotinus obovatusmight work. Chalk Maple - Acer luecoderme. BTW wind exposure is a concern as well. How exposed is the site to dry NW wind. How much precipitation do you get per year? Plains can range for somewhere in between about 12"-35" per year, but that is a BIG range. Arktrees

My early gardens were cottage by necessity as I've always found it difficult to throw out plants so it tends to get crowded. DH & I moved every 2-3 years and I always bot too many plants and found a place for them in an existing flower bed. Then I discovered growing perennials from seed 30 years ago and it became worse! Or better from a cottage viewpoint. I also realized about then that when plants are close together the weeds are shaded and have less chance which was very appealing to me. Somewhere along the way I began to notice other people's gardens, many in gardening books and magazines, that were labelled "cottage" and I knew that was my style. Strangely enough I was not aware of Monet's garden when we lived in Europe (pre-internet days) or I'd certainly have visited it. Parts of it are my dream garden and I hope to see it one day. My parents were serious gardens with a huge veggie garden and many flower beds that were mostly structured. The one exception was a bed along the house where my DM planted mixed-color wallflowers from seed which I especially loved because there were no spaces between the plants and I now know it had a cottage look. My DF had a bed of lovely roses lined up like soldiers and the other beds were a mix of perennials and annuals but very organized, not at all cottage, but a common style in suburbs in the 50's.

I have the same dilemma. My mom had a childhood penpal and saved the letters. Some of that stuff is taking up a small amount of space so I just keep it around, but someday it will be trash. Ironically, I worked for a museum, and one minutes something is sitting in a box in storage, old carp that no one wants to look at, and the next minute it is a valuable time capsule for someone looking for details of that time and era. For example, I found a box of old school stuff that a teacher donated, bulletin boards and educational props, handouts, mimeo sheets, etc. that she used in her class. The kind of stuff I know teachers all over the country end up throwing out when they retire. She donated this box, and 100 years later, I was researching turn of the century educational materials to make some reproductions, and her box of old useless junk was now a goldmine. That's the rub. I'm interested in history, and I am APPALLED at how much stuff local history museums and archives just don't bother even scanning anymore, let alone saving. No one wants to bother with it. My local libraries history room routinely has stuff stolen since they can't invest in proper management and security. One local historian left his estate to the library and they had a historical collections manager for ten years with money from the bequest, but once it was used up, they have just let everything go. No one even on the staff anymore who has any training in history. I'm toying with getting a certificate in archiving. There are several colleges that offer online programs. As a lover of history, family or otherwise, I am just amazed at how little interest there is in such things anymore. I'm not suggesting you should save everything, but heck people throw out perfectly good clothing and furniture just because it is a few years old now. Not like Europe, where they have family stuff that is hundreds of years old in many attics still. I will say that the trend nowdays is to throw out the original stuff and save it digitally as scanned images. That's a bit of a mistake, in my mind, but again, can't fight "progress."

That really was interesting. Aren’t we glad those men developed a machine we take almost for granted. What did surprise me was the tonnage of clothing in landfills! Theresa